HEART Of THE FLINDERS

A 4X4 TOUR THROUGH SOUTH AUSTRALIA'S SPECTACULAR FLINDERS RANGES OFFERS A CONSTANTLY CHANGING LANDSCAPE, A RICH TAPESTRY OF MODERN AND ANCIENT HISTORY, AND UNMISSABLE EXPERIENCES

- RON MOON

WE WERE back in amongst the ranges and I couldn’t be happier. With permission from a friend, who had given us approval to camp on her property, we poked along the Glass Gorge Road north of the historic town of Blinman.

The town owes its existence to the discovery of copper back in 1859 and, while there were many other discoveries of that ore in the surrounding hills and valleys, Blinman managed to survive longer and more substantially than most. Today there’s a pub offering camping and accommodation, a nearby café, and the Blinman Underground Experience, which is a tour of the old mine workings that’s well worth doing.

When we passed through, the café and pub were doing a roaring trade with parking near impossible to find in the short main street. It was the busiest I’ve ever seen the town, so with that we drove on, getting our permission to camp before wandering on through the low, rugged ramparts of Glass Gorge.

Just off the road we checked out a small, ‘interesting’ monument which is, by all accounts, a signpost to another universe. While I’m not saying I understood any of what the small marble monument was about (or its website: kcymaerxthaere.com), it does indicate that there are people out there on a different planet to most of us. In all, there are 12 of these installations in Australia with more than 143 spread around the world.

A short distance further along the road we turned off and followed a creekbed deeper into the hills and stopped at a wide bend in the dry gravel and called it ‘camp’ for the next few days.

INTO THE FLINDERS